Truly Jack Kirby’s wildest concept, Silver Star tells the story of Morgan Miller, a name who is the next evolution of human: Homo-Geneticus! During an engagement Viet Nam, Morgan displays a feat of incredible strength, by lifting a throwing a tank, and afterward discovers his true potential, as a super-powered being. Wearing a silver suit, designed to contain his powers, Morgan becomes the Silver Star, a man with the abilities of atom rearrangement (think Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen), he can teleport, astral project and create with a thought. He becomes aware that his father, a doctor and scientist, had experimented on many subjects, including his own son, while they were in the womb, in order to create a version of man who could withstand the atomic bomb. Morgan is connected to these “Others” and wishes to seek them out in order to stop one of their own, the villain Darius Drumm, a powerful Homo-Geneticus who was raised by a cult, which has given him many mental scars (to match his outward ones) and seeks to remake the world as he sees fit. Drumm and Morgan seek the “Others”, with Drumm killing off most but Morgan is able to find a few, one of which is a female stunt woman named Norma Richmond, with whom he starts a relationship and helps him defeat Drumm.

My synopsis on this one isn’t great, because there is a lot going on here, but if you liked anything that I mentioned, then you must read this, because I absolutely loved this story! I love, pretty much everything that Jack Kirby has created, so I can’t tell if I’m biased or not, but I thought that there were some very interesting concepts here, that could have been explored, had this been written in a post-Watchmen era. Jack’s art is fantastic and the new coloring makes each page stand out, especially Jack’s double-paged splash pages. The story is good, but most of the dialogue is a bit dated by now, but that’s to be expected. This collection also includes a copy of Jack Kirby’s original screenplay, because this story was meant to be a movie with the ability to expand into other mediums.

I picked this one up on a whim, not knowing what to expect from it and I’m glad that I did! This was the last series that Kirby did and I think that he ended his creative and professional career on a high note!

The first book of (so far) five announced He-Man collector’s books published by Dark Horse Comics, the Art of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe is curated by a host of ‘Masters’ experts and is a wonderful addition to the collection any MOTU or toy/animation enthusiast.

The book is broken down into 10 chapters, each focusing on one aspect of the ‘Masters’ Universe, from the classic toys, to the comics, the 80’s motion picture and the current collector’s toy line. With hundreds of pictures and captions, this book contains a wealth of information on everything ‘Masters’, no matter your interest in the property. I really enjoy the first chapter, which goes over the creation of He-Man and the development of the toy line.

This past Thursday, September 8th was the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek, a property that is very near and dear to my heart. While I didn’t become a “Trekkie/Trekker” until I was already in high school (and Star Trek: The Next Generation had already ended) I quickly devoured everything Star Trek that I could. I stayed away from the novels, which I wasn’t sure was continuity, and mostly stuck with the multiple series, movies and supplemental literature, such as the episode guides and technical manuals. I found the world…er, universe, very interesting and thought provoking, the kind of science fiction that I needed at the time. My first entries into Star Trek were Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and the movie, Star Trek First Contact.

I saw First Contact in the theaters, twice, once with the newly formed Star Trek Club in my high school and once with my dad, who was already a Star Trek fan, but had never pushed it upon me or my other siblings. My local Fox channel was airing DS9 at 5pm on weekdays, so after school I was able to catch up to the current season of DS9, which was airing on UPN (now the CW, after a merger with the WB). So, suffice it to say, after almost 20 years, I’m still the biggest Trekkie/Trekker that I know!

When 2016 kicked on January 1st, I knew that this was Trek’s big five-oh, and I couldn’t be happier! I couldn’t wait for the deluge of 50th Anniversary merchandise: models, die cast vehicles, novels, comics, action figures, collectable stamps and coins. While I haven’t purchased everything that I want, I have selected a few choice pieces to add to my collection, which now includes a Barnes & Noble Hardcover Collection of several TOS scripts, a Mega Bloks (think Legos) Guardian of Forever set, and all of the US and Canadian commemorative stamps, as well as one of the Canadian minted coins. There is still more to come and I can not wait, I just think my wallet wants this to end!

I did enjoy Star Trek Beyond, which was released in theaters this year and stared the crew of the reboot movies. I felt that the movie was great, better than Star Trek into Darkness, but about equal to Star Trek. I can’t wait for it’s release on BluRay, and will definitely pick up the copy with the best “extras”.

Now, as to celebrating Star Trek on it’s birthday, my roommates and I had a mini-marathon of Trek episodes, hand picked by yours truly. We waited until Friday to celebrate, seeing as how most of us are off on the weekends, but on Thursday, we did watch First Contact, and boy is it still as good as I remember. On Friday, we watched 5 episodes, one from each Trek series, accompanied by an ‘adult’ beverage, most of our own concoction. The episodes and drinks, are listed below:

Taking place during the last several seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space 9, we, finally, get to see what the crew of the USS Enterprise have been up to during the Dominion War. This story begins with a revolt among the Gorn, as military guild murders all the members of the political guild, even going so far as to destroy their eggs. Picard and crew have been sent to Gorn space, in order to recruit them as allies against the Dominion, but they are quickly wrapped up among the Gorn Civil War, with each member of the crew risking everything, so that diplomacy can be preserved and that the Gorn enter the war on the side of the Federation.

A great Star Trek story, which involves my favorite Star Trek race, the Gorn. I have always been fascinated by the Gorn, ever since I got into Star Trek, going so far as to have a small Gorn ‘shrine’, which consists of a bunch of different Gorn figures, above my computer. This graphic novel is painted, which is a first for me, when it comes to Star Trek comics. It’s not a medium I thought would be used to tell the stories of the 24th Century, but it works! The graphic novel allows the story to be as long as it needs to, but this particular story feels more like an extended episode instead of a feature-length movie, which is what I was hoping. With that said, I do recommend this one, especially for Trek fans or fans of those green-skinned lizards, the Gorns!

On the unnamed planet, Han, Leia and Han’s “wife”, Sana Solo have a major discussion about what’s going on, but without actually dealing with what’s going on. Sana destroys Han and Leia’s vessel and proceeds to try and sell the Princess over to the Imperial Forces in orbit of the planet. Luke tries to find a way to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant and heads into a den of scum and villainy to do so, but ends up drawing too much attention to him self and gets attacked and his lightsaber ends up getting stolen by a random alien rogue!

Another great issue of Star Wars, which finally picks up after the cliffhanger of issue #6. We really don’t get any explanations about Han’s “wife”, Sana, which may have been left out due to that particular story being told in some other media, like a novel or the untitled Han Solo movie. All-in-all, this issue continues the story and gives us more adventures in the Star Wars’ timeline between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. It features a great story with great art and is…

Using both is Jedi abilities and his natural charisma, Caleb is able to escape from his clone commander captors. Caleb is sucked into the vacuum of space, but with the aid of the Force and the quick rescue of his allies, he survives and is brought aboard one of their ships. Things look bleak for the rebels, but Caleb’s speech has turned one of the clone commanders to his side, and he sacrifices his life to destroy his own ship, killing everyone on board. With the Empire believing him dead, Caleb heads off on his own, with his lightsaber, the holocron and his very own ship and begins his life anew as Kanan!

A great ending to this…mini-series!? Well, what I thought was a mini-series is in fact, ongoing (or at least continuing for now), and going to give us more adventures from Kanan’s past. This issue see Caleb/Kanan off on his own, and with a clean slate for him to live/survive in the galaxy. I hope future issue tell us how he met the other Rebels and continued his Jedi training. A good ending to a good story with good art, this one is…

In this new arc, ‘Deity’, Sulu is given the command of an away mission to a unexplored planet to observe the native species. Sulu has to pick his away team specialists, which includes Scotty, because he’s invented a special stealth device which will help them study and observe without being observed themselves. Once on the planet, they discover an odd five spire ritual site, but before they can study it some more, a story begins to roll in and the native population, which resemble tribal, humanoid birds, return. The tribal bird people place children along the spires and the storm begins to strike them, filling the area with energy. A massive, crescent-shaped vessel arrives in orbit above the planet as this is occurring, giving the Enterprise a massive threat. This vessel is absorbing the lighting from the storm, which is raising the children upward, toward the ship. All of the energy in the area disables Scotty’s device and the away team is discovered by the native population, who don’t seem very happy that outsiders have ruined/witnessed their private ritual!

Another great issue of Star Trek! While I’m not a fan of the designs of the bird people, it is something new that Star Trek doesn’t already have represented. I like the idea of letting other characters shine, and Sulu is a great choice as a lead character. I hope that we get to see more away team missions with other members of the crew, especially Bones and Chekov. What does the vessel want with ‘birdlings’ and will it put up a fight with the Enterprise there? Will Sulu and his away team make it out in one piece, especially since the bird people have very sharp, pointy halberds.

Issue 1 starts off with a brief origin of Max, retelling the events of the first three movies. After that, we jump to right before the current movie, Mad Max: Fury Road, where Max once again battles in Thunder Dome, this time over ownership of a V8 engine. Max wins, but only with outside help from a spectator. Mad claims his prize, but is attacked once he leaves, because the followers of the man he killed want vengeance, especially because they believe that Max cheated by getting help. They take the engine and leave Max for dead in the Wastes. Issue 2 starts with Max awakening to find himself patched up and near a fire, set by the woman who help in in the dome. This mysterious woman, named Glory, is looking for her daughter, who is lost in a nearby ruins of a city, which is inhabited by the men who attacked him. Because she helped him in both the dome and the Wastes, Max helps Glory rescue her daughter. Glory takes Max to the city, but he goes in alone and finds the girl and they both make it out after some close calls. Max is even able to find his car and the stole engine. He bring the girl to her mother and the two of them ride off, bit Max doesn’t follow. Some of the surviving gang members take off after the Glory and her daughter and run them down. Max sees this and takes out the last remaining warriors and buries the bodies before heading off into the Wastes.

Another great Mad Max comic which fills in some gaps left by the movie and gives us more action and adventures set in this incredible world. It’s sad that this is probably the last Mad Max comic, at least for now, as we may get more if Warner Bros will do another Mad Max movie. Max’s story is the longest, as it takes two issues to tell and is probably the best, as it’s filled with a concise retelling of the previous movies and lots of violence and action. The art is also great, fitting the gritty and dirty tone of Max’s world. I can’t wait to see Fury Road again, once it comes out on Blu-Ray, and I may have to re-read all of these comics once more, because they are that damn good!